(The following short story is a reprint from Globalnook's
Mother's Day edition of last year. It was written to honor mothers
throughout the world on their special day.)
**************
Robert Allman, dressed in his best Sunday suit, sat quietly
in the front seat of the family car while his wife drove.
“Now Bob, I’m going to drop you off at the corner,” the wife
instructed. “Go to Waldrop's Drugs and get three roses…Two red and one
white.”
“Yes, dear,” Robert replied.
“What’s the difference, mama?” little Johnny asked from the
back seat.
“On Mother’s Day, you wear a red rose to church if your mother is
alive,” the wife continued. “If your mother is dead, you wear a white
one…. You and I will wear red. Your father will wear white.”
“Oh,” little Johnny replied thoughtfully.
The car stopped at the corner down from the drug store.
Robert started to get out.
“Dad!” little Johnny said. “Get me some jawbreakers. Two sour
grape and three lemon. OK?”
The child’s father nodded then started to get out again.
“Dad!” the son called again.
The father stopped again.
“Don’t let her tell you she doesn’t have any lemon,” the son
said.
”I was in there Friday morning. The lemons are in the front corner of
the big candy case.”
“Ok.” the father said.
Robert started to get out again.
“Bob!” the wife summoned.
The husband stopped again.
“Tell Alma I said “Hi!”
The husband nodded and started to get out again.
“Don’t forget!” Johnny called from the back seat. “Two sour
grape and three lemon… OK?”
“Ok. Ok.” The father said. “Can I get out now?”
“Yeah… Get out! Go on!” the wife said impatiently, urging her
husband out of car, “And hurry up. We don’t want to be late for church
on Mother’s Day.
Robert got out of the car and slammed the door.
Then, after watching the car move down the street, he turned
and started walking the half-block to the drug store.
“Good morning, Bob,” the clerk greeted as he walked in.
“Morning, Alma,” Robert started, “I need three roses. Two reds
and one white.”
“Let me see what I have,” she said moving to the flower cooler.
“The white is for you?”
Robert nodded.
“My mother is passed on too” the woman said. “I miss her so
much.”
He watched as the woman searched through the bunches of roses.
“Yeah, I lost my mother nine years ago,” he replied sadly. “I’d
give anything on this earth to see her again”.
“I’m sorry,” the woman said finally, “But I’m out of whites.”
He pondered for a second.
“Well…” he sighed indecisively. “Give me a red. I’ve got to wear
something…. And I want some jawbreakers. Two sour grape and three
lemon.”
The clerk gathered the jawbreakers and roses and handed them to
her customer.
“That’ll be $3.50” she said.
Robert Allman paid the clerk.
“Thanks, Alma,” he said.
Outside on the street again, he looked at the three red roses.
They
were rich, fully-petaled flowers. For a moment, he wondered what his
wife would think, then he started walking back down the street.
“Robert!” a voice called nearby.
He stopped and turned to the sound of the voice. Before him
stood a small, elderly woman with a warm smile.
“Oh my God!” he said, jumping back in fright and staring in
disbelief.
For a moment, he couldn’t speak.
“Mother!? Mom?” he gasped finally, “Is that you??!!”
“It’s me, Robert... your mother”, the woman replied quietly.
“Stay calm now. I‘m just here for a little visit.”
Robert Allman still couldn’t believe what he is seeing.
“Mama, we buried you down at Fellowship Baptist nine years ago.
“Well, I’m here now. And I’m talking to my son,” the woman said
calmly, taking his arm. “Come on and walk with me a ways. I don’t have
long.”
For a moment, he hesitated. He still couldn’t believe his eyes.
“Come on!” the woman said, tugging on his arm. “Don’t be
afraid. I AM your mother.”
For a brief moment, he burst out in giddy laughter. Then, just
as suddenly, he stopped.
“I can’t believe it mom,”
he said. “I just can’t believe it,” he said again. “Oh, God! I’m so glad
to see you.”
“It’s good to see you too,”
she said with a loving smile. “Now come on and walk with me."
Calmer now,
forty-two-year-old Robert Allman, holding the three
roses and the sack of jawbreakers, started walking down the street with
the elderly woman holding his arm.
“How you been doing?” she
asked. “How’s little Johnny and Clara. I’ll bet Johnny is a big boy
now.”
“He’s 12.” Robert replied.
“He wants everything he sees. When I
growing up, I was lucky to get one jawbreaker. He has to have five, two
sour grape and three lemon, no less.”
“Yeah, that’s the way you
were when you were his age. I remember how you worked cutting lawns all
summer to get that catcher’s mitt when you were his age.”
He looked at the woman and
smiled.
“That glove was burned up in
the old clubhouse we had down in the
woods,” he laughed. "Me and Billy Herman had a built a fire in an old
stove and went down to the creek. When we smelled the smoke, we went
running back up the hill. I tried to save the mitt, but the clubhouse
and the glove were already gone.”
Robert laughed out loud at
the memory.
“I hadn’t thought about that
for a long time,” he said.
“And Clara? Are you and her
getting along?”
“Yeah,” he said finally. “We
are doing okay, I guess. She’s just so
bossy. She orders me around like I’m a puppy dog. But she’s a good
mother to our son, so I don’t say anything.”
“How’s she doing with the
diabetes?”
“Oh, she’s fine,” he answered.
“If she takes her insulin, she’s
fine. We always keep orange juice in the fridge in case of emergencies.”
“You look good, Robert,” the
woman said. “You look healthy and happy with yourself."
“Oh, I feel good, mama. I
love my job at the plumbing supply. I’ve been doing it a while.”
“Are you saving any of it?”
“I’m trying, mama. I’ve got
a retirement plan at work, we own the house on Chestnut Street now
and Clara is talking about opening a savings bond account at her work.”
“That’s good,” the woman said. “No matter what they say about
money, in times of trouble it can’t be beat. Money gives you freedom.
You don’t want to be broke in this day and age.”
The two walked quietly.
“When was the last time you were at the old house down at
Oakwood?”
“Oh, it’s been a while, mama," he replied. “You know the gas
company bought that land six or seven years ago. Right where the old
house used to stand there is a big tank that holds natural gas.
“Me and your daddy built
that house when you were five," she reminisced. "I remember my cousin Alvin came
over to help us dig out of the tree roots so we could lay the
foundation. I handed the concrete blocks up to your daddy one at a
time," she said with a sigh. "I guess nothing stays the same...."
The two walked quietly.
“What about your sister Edna? Is she OK?”
“I don’t know, mama,” he replied. “ I don't know where she is. After
the estate was settled, she met up with a lawyer over in Reedsville and
she said they were going up to St. Louis. I haven’t heard from her in five, maybe six
years…. She never wrote… she never called....”
The mother didn't reply at first.
“I hope that wherever she is she’s happy, healthy and at peace
with herself…,” she said finally.
Robert Allman looked at his mother and said nothing.
The two walked quietly. They were nearing the corner where he
was due to meet his wife.
“When was the last time you cleaned off your daddy’s grave?”
He stopped and drew a deep breath.
“Now mama, you know me and daddy never got along,” he said. “He
never had time for me. He was always busy with work and his friends and
everything else but me. You know that.”
“That doesn’t matter,” he said. "He’s still your father.”
He turned quickly to his mother.
“Mom! You know that YOU were the one I loved. It was your arms I
ran to. It was your bosom that I clung to. It was your voice that
soothed me in times on trouble. It was you I went to when I was
hurting or hungry or needed support. It was YOUR arms where I felt
warmth and comfort and support and love….”
He stopped for a moment.
The woman looked at her son sympathetically, saying nothing.
“Then, as I grew older,” the son continued, “Other arms reached
out to hold me…….”
Suddenly, realizing what he had said, he stopped, overcome with
emotion.
He looked as his mother and his eyes began to fill with tears.
They stopped walking. The mother turned to face her son.
“It’s OK, Robert,” the mother said consolingly, reaching up and
taking the much larger man into her small arms. "It's okay, baby....
It's okay, baby... it's ok."
For a brief moment, the two hugged one another tightly.
"Mama..... I've missed you so much...," he said, clinging
tightly to the woman.
"I know, baby.... I know," she replied.
"I've always loved you so, so much" he said.
"I know, baby," she said. "I know."
Finally, the woman broke the embrace.
“I’m so glad to see you, mom,” he said tearfully. “I've missed
you so much.”
“And I've missed you too....” she replied.
Then she stepped back from her son.
“Well...," she said. "I’ve got to go now.”
“Go!!??...” he asked, a frantic tone in his voice. “Where are
you going?”
“Oh, I’ve got to go back...,” she said. “They only let me come
for a visit.”
“But…but…”, he said.
“Bye, Robert…” the woman said sadly. “I love you.”
Then, as Robert Allman watched helplessly, the woman walked
quickly to the building at the corner and turned up the street.
“Mom! Mother!” he yelled frantically. “Mom! Mom!” he yelled
again.
Desperately, he ran to the corner and looked up the street.
The street was empty.
He looked around frantically. He looked across the street and
back
down the street toward the drug store. The woman was nowhere to be
seen. Then, holding the sack of candy in one hand and the roses in the
other, he put his hands to his face and began sobbing. Then he fell to
his knees and sobbed uncontrollably for several seconds. Then he
suddenly realized where he was. Instantly, he stood up. He took out his
handkerchief and wiped his eyes. He straightened his tie. He looked
down at his dress pants. There was gravel and dirt at the knees. He
dusted them off hastily. He inspected the roses. They were fine. Then
he took a deep breath and looked up the street. He could see the family
car approaching.
The car stopped. The son already had the
car’s back window rolled down and was reaching for the candy. Robert
handed the bag to his son then got into the car.
“Oh, no!!” the wife said disappointedly upon seeing the roses.
"Alma didn’t have any more
whites...,” he explained.
“So what are we going to do?” the wife asked.
“We’ll just have to play like daddy’s mama is alive today,”
little Johnny suggested.
“What?!” the mother asked.
“Let dad wear the red rose like his mother is alive….,” the son
said. “What’s wrong with that?”
“Well, it IS kind of tacky…” she said thoughtfully. “But since
that’s all we’ve got…. Ok,” she said finally, “I guess the red will
have to do….”
In the back seat, Johnny opened the bag of jawbreakers.
“Wow, Dad!” the son said excitedly, looking inside. “That’s
exactly what I wanted. You did great!”
“Yeah” the father said with a smile, “I DID do pretty good!”
With that, the father looked back at his son and laughed out
loud.
“Ok, you two,” the woman said sternly, “Y’all hush up so I can
drive… “We don’t want to be late for church on Mother’s
day.”
******
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